The document discusses why serious usability problems often remain unaddressed in organizations, highlighting factors such as lack of time, resources, and organizational politics. It presents findings from a survey on common obstacles to implementing usability changes and suggests strategies for overcoming these challenges. The authors emphasize the importance of tactical solutions, stakeholder engagement, and adapting to the organizational environment to facilitate usability improvements.

1. Why do
usability problems
go unfixed?
Caroline Jarrett and Francis Rowland
UXBristol 2012

2. Thanks to Steve Krug
Why do the most serious usability problems
we uncover often go unfixed?
“But the light bulb
has to want to
change”
http://www.slideshare.net/SteveKrug/upa-lightbulb

3. We are Caroline and Francis
Caroline Francis
What do you do? UX consultant, mostly
working with the Open
University
UX designer,
background in web
design and science
OK but what do you
love to do ?
Work on big complex
complicated worthy
things. (But my real
favourite: tax forms)
Help scientists share
data and knowledge in
useful, usable ways
What’s your motto? “What’s the scope for
change?”
“What problem are you
trying to solve?”
What got you into this
‘light bulb’ thing?
Change in big complex
complicated worthy
organisations never
happens as quickly as
I’d like it to
Usability issues can get
buried under “everything
else we have to do”.
3

4. Who are you?
You Your neighbour
What do you do?
OK but what do you
love to do ?
What’s your motto?
What got you into this
‘light bulb’ thing?
4

5. What we’re going to do in this workshop
Share
and
report
Work on
tactical
solutions
Delve
into why
Gather
some
examples
5

6. Share
and
report
Work on
tactical
solutions
Delve
into why
Gather
some
examples
We’ll share a story…
6

7. You work hard to find serious usability problems
I can’t find out
where I sign in
Image credit: infodesign.com.au
7

8. You present your findings to the client/team
This video clip
shows……
Image credit: Caroline Jarrett
8

9. They love your findings and recommendations
That’s exactly
what we needed
to know!
Image credit: Caroline Jarrett
9

10. Everyone agrees on the changes
We know what we
have to do and
we’re going to do it
Image credit: Caroline Jarrett
10

11. Months/years later, the same problems still exist
If only I could find out
where to sign in…
Image credit: infodesign.com.au
11

12. Gather
some
examples
 If this has happened to you,
share your story with your
neighbour
- If it has never happened to you,
give your neighbour a chance
to share two examples. Or more.
12

13. Share
and
report
Work on
tactical
solutions
Delve
into why
Gather
some
examples
Steve and Caroline
did a survey
13

14. 14

15. We asked people why it happened (12 options)
15

16. Delve into
why
Which one do you think
is most frequent?
 Not enough time
 Too much else to do
 Not enough resources
 Required too big a change
to a business process
 Technical team said it
couldn't be done
 Team did not have enough
power to make it happen
 Conflicted with decision
maker's belief or opinion
 No effective decision maker
 Disagreements emerged
later
 Deferred until next major
update/redesign
 Other events intervened
before change could happen
 Legal department objected
16

17. Most people chose lots of reasons
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Don't know 1 reason 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 reasons
“I could have checked off just
about every one of these. Was
this survey written just for me?”
17

18. Steve and Caroline’s picks for most frequent
 Not enough time
 Too much else to do
 Not enough resources
 Required too big a change to a business process
 Technical team said it couldn't be done
 Team did not have enough power to make it happen
 Conflicted with decision maker's belief or opinion
 No effective decision maker
 Disagreements emerged later
 Deferred until next major update/redesign
 Other events intervened before change could happen
 Legal department objected
Steve
Caroline
18

19. We underestimated the politics
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Legal department objected
Disagreements emerged later
Other events intervened before change could…
Technical team said it couldn't be done
Required too big a change to a business process
Team did not have enough power to make it…
No effective decision maker
Too much else to do
Not enough time
Deferred until next major update/redesign
Not enough resources
Conflicted with decision maker's belief or opinion
Number of times
this reason was chosen

20. Share
and
report
Work on
tactical
solutions
Delve
into why
Gather
some
examples
So, what can we do?
20

21. The four stages of usability problem discovery
 Prepare  Test
 Report
Image credit: Francis Rowland
 Act
21

22. Work on
tactical
solutions
3-12-3 activity
overview
03 minutes Individually Lots of ideas
12 minutes Team Pool, group,
turn into tactics
03 minutes Spokesperson Present ideas
to the workshop
22

23. Work on
tactical
solutions
3 minutes
Individual
Politics
Not enough time / resources
Leave it until redesign
Too small / not important
Technical problems
Conflict (in-team; with managers)
23

24. Work on
tactical
solutions
12 minutes
Team
Pool those ideas
Group them: any themes?
Turn them into tactics
24

25. Work on
tactical
solutions
Share
and
report
3 minutes
Spokesperson
Summary of the results:
http://bit.ly/NRC3HA or
http://ebiinterfaces.wordpress.com/
2012/08/03/lightbulb-tactics-dealing-
with-usability-issues-that-dont-get-fixed/
25

26. Share
and
report
Work on
tactical
solutions
Delve
into why
Gather
some
examples
Ideas from our survey
respondents – in themes
26

27. Theme: Do nothing
 Accept the situation
► “Sometimes recommendations don't get realized.”
► “Clients don’t have to follow our advice”
► “I'll chant some Oms”
Image credit: shutterstock.com
27

28. Theme: Choose better clients or a better job
 “Become more efficient at choosing
who I accept as clients”
 “Work for a company that gave a fig about UX”
Image credit: shutterstock.com
28

29. Theme: Do basic UX better
 Do testing earlier
 Make stakeholders watch the sessions
 Present results better
► More explanations
► Use video clips
29

30. Theme: Think about the impact on developers
 “redefine problem as interaction bug”
 “have a role in the implementation team”
 “don’t spring surprises on them”
Image credit: Effortmark Ltd 30

31. Theme: Get better at politics
 Get decision-maker support
 Understand priorities
 “Get more buy-in. Explain changes to a
sponsor. Argue the case. Make it harder to
NOT do the change”.
31

32. Steve’s recipe
(greatly shortened) * :
Fly under the radar
*For the full version, please see
http://www.slideshare.net/SteveKrug/upa-lightbulb
32

33. Don’t try to convince everybody
You
Your team
Your
boss
Other bosses
he depends on
Stakeholders
Higher-ups
Mr. Big
Image credit: Steve Krug 33

34. Ideally…
You
Your team
Your
boss
Other bosses
he depends on
Stakeholders
Higher-ups
Mr. Big
Image credit: Steve Krug 34

35. i.e., the people you can get in an observation room
Image credit: Steve Krug
35

36. Keep them focused on the worst problems
Focus ruthlessly on a
small number of
the most important
problems.
36

37. Tweak, don’t redesign
When fixing problems,
always do the
least you can do™.
© 2001 Steve Krug

38. Caroline responds…
about the most
important problem
38

39. Eat now, eat soon, or eat an elephant?
39

40. Sometimes teams need a success experience
40

41. Sometimes users have a different perspective
41

42. We have different ideas about rewards
42

43. Look for success in everybody’s terms
Image credit: Francis Rowland
43

44. Don’t call their baby ugly, let them learn it’s ugly
44

45. And Francis has
suggestions
45

46. You’re not ready for love (or usability testing)
 Is your organisation ready for this?
Image credit: Renato Feijó – Planning your UX strategy
See also presentations and articles from
Michele Ide-Smith and Tomer Sharon
How much buy-in is
there? How much
can you realistically
get done? Are
people ready to act
on what you find?
46

47. Report through the accepted channels
 Helpdesk, bug-tracking, post-its on a whiteboard…
Use whatever works
best for the team…
make it visible and
actionable
47

48. Focus on what really matters to users
 Designing with personas and scenarios
Put usability issues in
context. If you’ve used
personas, scenarios,
user journeys, etc. in
the project, refer back
to them.
Image credit: Francis Rowland 48

49. Find fun ways to attack problems
 Be there
 Use games
Image credit: http://innovationgames.com/impact-effort-matrix/
Stay involved. Help with
prioritising and problem-
solving. We don’t want
to just “throw things
over the wall”.
You probably have some
tricks up your sleeve for how
to help break down problems
and find solutions. Use them.
49

50. That light bulb reference
Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to
change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but the light bulb
has to want to change
Image credit: shutterstock.com
50

51. Caroline Jarrett Francis Rowland
Twitter @cjforms
carolinej@effortmark.co.uk
Twitter @francisrowland
LinkedIn francisrowland
I have 2 pages in here!
… coming October 2012
51

52. For the longer version of this presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/cjforms
http://www.slideshare.net/SteveKrug
52